Viva La Differénce? The impact of diversity on the job satisfaction of public employees and performance of public agencies

This paper addresses previous shortcomings in diversity management scholarship by testing an expanded diversity model borrowed from the work of economist Scott Page. Page‘s model assumes diversity can be measured as both a mean and a variance, and that it consists of cognitive, identity, and preference characteristics. We link his conceptualization of diversity to both individual-level outcomes and organizational productivity. Results indicate that identity diversity reduces agency productivity and increases turnover intentions, while cognitive diversity has small and mixed effects. Findings also suggest that individual employee discretion as well as overall discretion in the agency shape outcomes in more important ways than diversity, and that the impact of agency size is contingent on overall discretion in the agency. We conclude with a discussion on the theoretical ramifications of our findings.